Eastern Woodland

Food

The Eastern Woodlands people became very good hunters and fisherman because they lived near the Atlantic.They

also fished in lakes.During the winter they mostly hunted moose and wolves.The most important game animal was the white tailed deer.They boiled or roasted the deer, moose, squirrels, or other meat.The slower and longer they cooked the meat, the tenderer it was. After it was done they would eat it right away because if they didn’t it would to have a lot of bugs on it and it would go bad.

If you want to preserve it you are going to have to smoke it for a long time.It was a very long process.They put it high in the air so the fire could cook it slowly. While they were smoking the meat they could do other things.After a long day this was probably very tasty and hardy.

Location

The Eastern Woodlands had lots of rivers, lakes, and coast lines such as the Saint Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, the Atlantic coast and many more.They used these water ways to become great paddlers and fisher man.The land is hilly in one area such as the Appalachian Mountains. Closer to the coast it’s less hilly like the Plains.In the summer the highs in heat are about eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit and the lows are about sixty-four degrees faring height.It is like this in the New England.

Clothing

The men of the Eastern Woodlands wore a breechcloth every day.They wore robes and leggings when it was cold or a special occasion.The women’s clothing was also a robe under her arms and tied around her waist.This was made of deer skin and amazingly fish skins.They were also made of many other animal skins.Deer skin was very popular.

The skins were dried by smoking them.They were very delicately handled by stretching to produce softer leather.This is how they made robes, leggings, and breechcloth.

Shelter

Their long houses varied between 25-150 feet long with around 60 people in a house depending how big the house was. They were made of many materials such as grass, sticks, and mud.They slept on the ground and bunk beds. The ground had one layer of grass and dirt.The homes always had a fire lit because of cooking and warming purposes.The women cooked most of the day.

They mostly ate meat. So, they moved a lot and needed shelter that could come down easily.They each had a smoke hole and one entrance to crawl out of.The hole was three feet tall so they didn’t have much to close off.The flap was easy to make because it was basically a piece of cloth and string tied to the ends.

Unique Information

Evil spirit “Windigo”

This is a legend about people lost in the forest that turned into cannibals.They ate their own kind and became a Windigo.If a person was taking a walk in the forest it would be hard for the Windigo not to eat their human flesh.If a person is a Windigo it would have to be burned to death to be killed.If you don’t burn it and instead shoot it, the thing would get into somebody else and kill many other people.The Windigo is mostly in the North East where food gets scarce during winter.Humans go looking in the woods for food and get eaten by the Windigo.